Right from the start of the series pilot, as they stumbled dazed and bleeding across a beach littered with airplane wreckage, the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 became a fixture on “Lost.” For the extras who played those roles for an unprecedented six seasons, it was steady work that stretched across 62 episodes. An executive producer told them it was the first time in TV history that background extras, who normally just work a day or two, were viewed as recurring roles.

“We were all family there,” said Chris Candella, a 46-year-old Manoa business owner who was one of survivors. “It was like being at an adult summer camp. You were at the beach hanging out with the actors. It was surreal.”

Extras, especially the crash survivors, were a huge part of “Lost,” said Julie Carlson, who served as the extras casting director on the series.

“The producers treated them as well as the actors,” she said. “They were an integral part of the story, and in the pilot they were the story.”

Carlson cast hundreds of people for background scenes, including scenes that were set far from the show’s tropical island — in Iraq, Nigeria, New York, Los Angeles, Australia. When Carlson cast for a scene in England, she asked potential extras if they had a tan.

The varied locations meant Carlson had to keep track of who she hired.

“On ‘Lost’ if we saw somebody in Iraq, I couldn’t use them in a coffee shop in another location,” she said. “I had to be careful not to have anybody who was seen come back in a different location. I had to really watch the episodes and make notes of who I saw and recognized. I would make a note to not use them again for a long time.”

The crash survivors had bigger problems, Candella said. When the series began, they were told they would be killed off during early episodes. But in the end they outlasted some of the early stars of “Lost.”

Candella’s crash survivor even got a name: Craig.

“Nothing compares to this, and nothing like it will ever come my way again,” Candella said. “A phenomenon like that is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”